The program is supported by the Secretary of Science, Technology and Higher Education of Paraná (SETI - Secretaria de Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior do Paraná) and the Fund Manager of Paraná (UGF - Unidade Gestora do Fundo Paraná). The goal of this project is to enhance internationalization in Paraná’s higher education institutions by improving the capacities of scientific and academic communication in foreign language and by reaching the level of best national and international universities in graduate and postgraduate courses.
The first phase of the program started in the second semester of 2014 for 22 months involving seven state universities of Paraná (UEL, UEM, UENP, UNIOESTE, UNICENTRO, UEPG e UNESPAR). In this period all the university community could take language courses to prepare for TOEFL iBT at intermediate and post- intermediate level. The second phase of the project “Paraná speaks English” started in 2017 that apart from the preparation for proficiency tests, focused on the real needs concerning the process of internationalization in all spheres of university activity.
That way, courses are offered to enable the usage of English in real context, such as academic English and English for specific purposes. These kind of courses could contribute to enhance the publications in journals with a high international impact. Furthermore, the academic community is prepared to face international cooperations in research, education and extension and also live linguistic and cultural diversity. This way, we wish to find partners from English speaking countries in order to work for qualification and reinforcement in common activities, expand PFI, primarily with partnerships as the Government of Canada who has currently two projects running: Languages Canada and Smart English.